Blackwater
06-04-2016, 01:09 PM
This post will be partly a confession of how dumb I can be, partly a celebration of how that doesn't have to STAY that way, and partly just an illustration of how greater understanding of The Word can come, especially to those of us who "see through the glass darkly, from unanticipated sources and at unanticipated times and in unanticipated ways.
I read the Bible and tried to decipher the real meaning of its words for many years, and kind'a found a point where I couldn't progress further, even though I strongly sensed there was much left to be learned. It was very frustrating, because above everything else, I've typically just "wanted to know." So, I progressed, or maybe I should say did NOT progress, for many years in my understanding of the Bible. The more I read it, the less I seemed to understand. Very frustrating. Yet, I always knew it was all true, and that there was much I was just simply missing.
Then, some years ago, I just happened to tune into a show on EWTN about G. K. Chesterton. I knew of him through his wonderful quotes I'd read often. Being curious, I DVR'd these shows, and became very interested in him. The show is hosted by the leader of the American Chesterton Society, Dale Ahlquist, and his wry sense of playful humor was rather captivating and appropriate to the subject at hand. Then, I decided to order a few books from the ACS, and read them. Wow! Was I ever more impressed! Chesterton's playful sense of humor, his insights, and his deep thinking on things I'd never even thought about, was a revelation to me. I found myself suddenly understanding things I'd long wondered about better than I'd come to ever really hope to.
Then, I tuned into the shows on the Church Channel and found Reasons to Believe, and that was captivating and VERY illustrative of how much science had progressed toward proving, or at the very least supporting heavily, the true and logical concept that God MUST really exist and be a loving and awesomely powerful God who controls everything we know, and put it all into motion to begin with. Wow! Yet ANOTHER real gem, and it was on the TV! More edification, still!
I was both amused and appreciative of all this. Then I saw a program on C. S. Lewis, I believe on EWTN again, and bought some of his works. Wow again! More real gems of thought on the Bible, God, Christ, and our place in it all, and yet more "reasons to believe" from the simple direction of rational thought and analysis of things we all know. I was also amused and impressed that he'd started out as an atheist, and had set out to PROVE what a folly belief and faith were, but instead, became a believer for all his best efforts. He was, above all, brutally honest. His writing is more objective and analytic in content than most are used to reading from this angle of approach, but gee golly wow was it POWERFUL!
I've since gotten into a few others, but these three, this trinity of great authors, has really opened my eyes to so very, very much that I doubt I'd ever have realized without them. And all deal with Christianity in a very non-denominational sort of way in all but the rarest of instances. Chesterton defended Catholicism because he was Catholic, but 99+% of what he wrote was non-denominational - a thing I think is a huge asset in considering and reading the Bible for real content. It sure has proven out that way for me, if to no other.
I'd read some denominational stuff before and found it really rather limited and in all honesty, kind'a boring, like many sermons can be once you've really and truly accepted Christianity deeply into your heart. So I ceased pursuing understanding from that angle, and just languished with my desire to know, alone for many years. When I found the above three, it was like wide doors swinging open to me! And boy! Was I ever more appreciative of THAT!
Only reading what I have will fully illustrate what I've said above fully, and I couldn't possibly post it all here. I think I've read nearly 20 of Chesterton's books, and about 3 of Lewis's, and maybe a half dozen of the RTB books. And perhaps the most impressive things is that each of these form a unified whole wherein each of the parts lock up precisely with the others, even though approaching them from different angles. When that happens, I've always considered that validation of each of the parts.
So though reading the Bible will ALWAYS be THE main thing, I've found it SO beneficial in my walk to read others' interpretations and comments in order to "see the light" more clearly and fully and deeply. It's as though at this stage in my life, some of my most ardent and life long wishes had finally been granted.
A friend asked me to teach him to tie flies for fishing with the fly rod some time ago. I did, and he took to it like a duck takes to water! And the amazing thing is, I learned so much MORE from teaching him than I'd ever known before! His sometimes whimsical use of color and materials was a real revelation to me. And I'd always shied away from using foam for a material, but he wanted to try. Darned if he didn't get ME into it too! And floating wooly worms and others really DO catch fish, too! So, the student in this case, taught me, the teacher as much or more than I taught him. After all, all you can really do in fly tying is lay stuff alongside the shank or wrap stuff around it, and tie it in. Really simple stuff, actually.
And one of the revelations I got from my reading of the triumvirate of authors above, was that it truly IS very simple. It's just not something that jumps out at you and says, "Here I am." Much in the Bible is hidden until you approach it from just the right angle, and that just made me smile at how dull I'd truly been for so very long. If a man can't laugh at himself and his errors, he'll never make much of a Christian, I think. That's another reason I've so long thought simple humility is one of, if not THE most crucial aspects of true and mature Christianity.
Just as I, the teacher of fly tying, learned so much from a good and sometimes whimsical student, I learned that much in the Bible can be learned from reading it a lot more lightly than I'd been doing. I just wasn't approaching it from the right angle, or with enough openess and whimsy. Chesterton is much more whimsical in his writing, and he's a real pleasure to read. Even his ideological "enemies" loved and respected him! And whenever I reread him, I notice things that I hadn't quite "gotten" the first time. This is the hallmark of really good and "pregnant" writing and authors.
Who else have you guys found who has helped you broaden and deepen your own personal understanding of the Bible. It seems common for many to reach a certain point, a stalemate of sorts, where our reading alone just seems to reach a point of diminishing returns, if not a brick wall at times. I know some of you have demonstrated far greater wisdom and understanding than I have. Who helped you reach that point in your own walk?
A lot of good stuff is really out there, but there's SO much stuff that really is just repetition of the same ol' same ol', that it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I now realize that my earlier efforts at edification were simply cut short because of MY cynicism that "they're all like that." But at least I learned better, even if it DID take half a lifetime to do it. Who has meant the most to you in helping you find your own answers?
I read the Bible and tried to decipher the real meaning of its words for many years, and kind'a found a point where I couldn't progress further, even though I strongly sensed there was much left to be learned. It was very frustrating, because above everything else, I've typically just "wanted to know." So, I progressed, or maybe I should say did NOT progress, for many years in my understanding of the Bible. The more I read it, the less I seemed to understand. Very frustrating. Yet, I always knew it was all true, and that there was much I was just simply missing.
Then, some years ago, I just happened to tune into a show on EWTN about G. K. Chesterton. I knew of him through his wonderful quotes I'd read often. Being curious, I DVR'd these shows, and became very interested in him. The show is hosted by the leader of the American Chesterton Society, Dale Ahlquist, and his wry sense of playful humor was rather captivating and appropriate to the subject at hand. Then, I decided to order a few books from the ACS, and read them. Wow! Was I ever more impressed! Chesterton's playful sense of humor, his insights, and his deep thinking on things I'd never even thought about, was a revelation to me. I found myself suddenly understanding things I'd long wondered about better than I'd come to ever really hope to.
Then, I tuned into the shows on the Church Channel and found Reasons to Believe, and that was captivating and VERY illustrative of how much science had progressed toward proving, or at the very least supporting heavily, the true and logical concept that God MUST really exist and be a loving and awesomely powerful God who controls everything we know, and put it all into motion to begin with. Wow! Yet ANOTHER real gem, and it was on the TV! More edification, still!
I was both amused and appreciative of all this. Then I saw a program on C. S. Lewis, I believe on EWTN again, and bought some of his works. Wow again! More real gems of thought on the Bible, God, Christ, and our place in it all, and yet more "reasons to believe" from the simple direction of rational thought and analysis of things we all know. I was also amused and impressed that he'd started out as an atheist, and had set out to PROVE what a folly belief and faith were, but instead, became a believer for all his best efforts. He was, above all, brutally honest. His writing is more objective and analytic in content than most are used to reading from this angle of approach, but gee golly wow was it POWERFUL!
I've since gotten into a few others, but these three, this trinity of great authors, has really opened my eyes to so very, very much that I doubt I'd ever have realized without them. And all deal with Christianity in a very non-denominational sort of way in all but the rarest of instances. Chesterton defended Catholicism because he was Catholic, but 99+% of what he wrote was non-denominational - a thing I think is a huge asset in considering and reading the Bible for real content. It sure has proven out that way for me, if to no other.
I'd read some denominational stuff before and found it really rather limited and in all honesty, kind'a boring, like many sermons can be once you've really and truly accepted Christianity deeply into your heart. So I ceased pursuing understanding from that angle, and just languished with my desire to know, alone for many years. When I found the above three, it was like wide doors swinging open to me! And boy! Was I ever more appreciative of THAT!
Only reading what I have will fully illustrate what I've said above fully, and I couldn't possibly post it all here. I think I've read nearly 20 of Chesterton's books, and about 3 of Lewis's, and maybe a half dozen of the RTB books. And perhaps the most impressive things is that each of these form a unified whole wherein each of the parts lock up precisely with the others, even though approaching them from different angles. When that happens, I've always considered that validation of each of the parts.
So though reading the Bible will ALWAYS be THE main thing, I've found it SO beneficial in my walk to read others' interpretations and comments in order to "see the light" more clearly and fully and deeply. It's as though at this stage in my life, some of my most ardent and life long wishes had finally been granted.
A friend asked me to teach him to tie flies for fishing with the fly rod some time ago. I did, and he took to it like a duck takes to water! And the amazing thing is, I learned so much MORE from teaching him than I'd ever known before! His sometimes whimsical use of color and materials was a real revelation to me. And I'd always shied away from using foam for a material, but he wanted to try. Darned if he didn't get ME into it too! And floating wooly worms and others really DO catch fish, too! So, the student in this case, taught me, the teacher as much or more than I taught him. After all, all you can really do in fly tying is lay stuff alongside the shank or wrap stuff around it, and tie it in. Really simple stuff, actually.
And one of the revelations I got from my reading of the triumvirate of authors above, was that it truly IS very simple. It's just not something that jumps out at you and says, "Here I am." Much in the Bible is hidden until you approach it from just the right angle, and that just made me smile at how dull I'd truly been for so very long. If a man can't laugh at himself and his errors, he'll never make much of a Christian, I think. That's another reason I've so long thought simple humility is one of, if not THE most crucial aspects of true and mature Christianity.
Just as I, the teacher of fly tying, learned so much from a good and sometimes whimsical student, I learned that much in the Bible can be learned from reading it a lot more lightly than I'd been doing. I just wasn't approaching it from the right angle, or with enough openess and whimsy. Chesterton is much more whimsical in his writing, and he's a real pleasure to read. Even his ideological "enemies" loved and respected him! And whenever I reread him, I notice things that I hadn't quite "gotten" the first time. This is the hallmark of really good and "pregnant" writing and authors.
Who else have you guys found who has helped you broaden and deepen your own personal understanding of the Bible. It seems common for many to reach a certain point, a stalemate of sorts, where our reading alone just seems to reach a point of diminishing returns, if not a brick wall at times. I know some of you have demonstrated far greater wisdom and understanding than I have. Who helped you reach that point in your own walk?
A lot of good stuff is really out there, but there's SO much stuff that really is just repetition of the same ol' same ol', that it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I now realize that my earlier efforts at edification were simply cut short because of MY cynicism that "they're all like that." But at least I learned better, even if it DID take half a lifetime to do it. Who has meant the most to you in helping you find your own answers?